Outstanding Stories » The Accidental Rescue

“The Accidental Rescue” is one of the outstanding stories (sub-junior) of the second biannual International Short Story Contest 2018 written by Palak Das, Lotus Valley International School, Noida, India.

The Accidental Rescue

“Mary, James, Annah and Nick!” “Get up! It’s 9 in the morning.” “Time for you people to get up is 7.” They wished Elle the caretaker good morning and went to freshen up. “Elle what’s for breakfast?” asked Nick. “Bacon and a loaf of bread as usual,” said Mary boringly. “No sweetheart, today the menu is something tasty and special!”. “But why Elle?” asked James curiously.

“As it is Elle’s birthday today!” said the most diligent and sweet orphan of the orphanage, Annah.

“Elle, as it is your birthday, can we please have a small cake and party today?” asked James with a slight grin. “Nice idea, not bad, I can do that, but on one condition,” said Elle. “What is the condition?” asked Annah softly. “The condition is that none of you will try to escape. If any one of you tries to escape then, no cake for the others. If you agree,” asked Elle. Everybody except Nick agreed.

“Nick, Please agree!” pleaded Annah. “Ok fine. But why do you always tell us that we should not run away? We also want to see the world like all other children,” said Nick. “Nick, think if you run away and get intercepted by goons. You don’t know how to handle the situation, do you?” asked Elle. “Yeah! Sorry if you felt bad Elle!” said Nick. “It’s nothing to feel bad about. Never ever think that you are an orphan. It’s just for your sake and never think that your parents are bad and abandoned you. They must be having a reason for this decision,” said Elle. “Oh my God! We have been talking since then and now it is almost supper time,” said James.

Days flew away and Elle had made the kids join a new school. One day Mary said to James, “Next week is Christmas but no presents for us. Can’t we just run away?” “Let me talk to Nick and Annah about this,”, said James anxiously. “Yes, James,” said Annah and Nick together mockingly. “Nick, Mary is suggesting it is Christmas and we should run away from the orphanage,” said James. “No!” said Nick aggressively. “But even if we run away, where will we go?” asked Annah.

At the moment Mary got into the room and said, “Hey! Guys haven’t you read that Mr. Robinson the billionaire has invited four children to come and spend the Christmas with him. So shall we start planning?” Everybody was ready to go but not very confident. “So, let us get ready,” said Nick. They took a piece of paper and made a diagram.

“This is simple, one of us has to sneak out of our orphanage and but all this,” said Nick. “What about the money?” asked Mary. “Then we can make all this,” said Nick. Days went by and finally they were able to nee make the things needed. One day, Nick said, “Let’s leave tonight.”

“Yeah! It’s Christmas tomorrow,” said Mary. Later in the night all four of them quietly went up to the roof with a long rope. One by one each one of them climbed down the rope and put on their caps, scarves and running shoes. Then, very soon they had reached Mr. Robinson’s huge and clean mansion. “Nick! It’s almost dawn I think we should ring the bell and ask if we are the first ones to reach here?” said James. “Yup.”, said Nick cheerfully. They slowly rang the bell and a tall figure emerged from the house and it was Mr. Robinson. “Hello, Children! Welcome to my mansion.” said Mr. Robinson very proudly. “If you don’t, aah……mind…. Mr. Robinson can we sleep here tonight?” asked Nick. “Yeah! Sure why not” came a voice from behind. The night flew away soon and Mr. Robinson was there to ask,” Children, do you want to look around the mansion?” “ Yes!!” replied all of them together. Soon they were all roaming around together. Suddenly there came a struggling voice from the dungeons. Together all of them rushed downstairs. “Hey! I can see a small room there. Let’s check,” shouted James. They barged into the room with great force and saw a fair, thin and tall boy. “I am Mr. Smith’s son. Mr. Robinson killed him and since I saw it he locked me up here,” said the tired and hungry boy. “What is your name, my friend?” asked Annah. “My named is Neville Smith,” said the boy. “Come on let’s call the police,” said Mary. Soon the police was called and Mr. Robinson was caught and James, Nick, Annah, Mary and Neville went back to the sweet orphanage.